Top Stories
CNN: "Iran is ready for 'effective cooperation' to resolve the dispute over
its nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in an interview with
state media. 'We said that we will talk with P5+1 as of early September, but
there are some conditions,' Ahmadinejad told Press TV on Monday. 'One of the
conditions is that others should be present in the discussions as well'... The Iranian leader said the conditions for talks include the P5+1
members announcing their positions on Israel having nuclear weapons." http://bit.ly/buZGuF
Radio Farda: "[U.S. General James] Mattis
said he was most concerned about Iran and its efforts to enrich uranium -- a
controversial program that Western countries fear is aimed at building nuclear
weapons. Mattis said that program made Iran the biggest threat in the Middle
East to regional and global stability. 'Iran offers the greatest long-term
challenge in the region as it continues to threaten regional and global
stability by pursuing a nuclear weapons program and by funding, arming, and
training militant proxies throughout the region,' Mattis said." http://bit.ly/9AaZZI
Daily Telegraph: "Iran 'deeply
regrets and condemns' a new set of tough European Union sanctions aimed at
pressuring Tehran to resume talks on its controversial nuclear programme, a
foreign ministry spokesman has said. 'These sanctions will not help in resuming
talks and will not affect Iran's determination to defend its legitimate right
to pursue a peaceful nuclear programme,' Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as
saying by the official Irna news agency." http://bit.ly/9cB1no
Nuclear Program
Reuters: "Stalled talks between Iran and world powers should begin again as
quickly as possible but must focus on Tehran's nuclear program, European Union
foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Wednesday. 'I've made it clear...that we would like those
talks to resume quickly and that we would be very clear that the issue on the
table is Iran's nuclear weapons capability and approach,' Ashton told reporters
at a conference in Rome. 'That is the issue. All other issues can be discussed
later.'" http://bit.ly/9RbatU
Human
Rights
Guardian: "A former cellmate of a woman sentenced to death by stoning in Iran, who
spent two years in prison with her and accompanied her to the court when she
received the news of her punishment, has told the Guardian how the woman,
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, fainted in shock after hearing the verdict." http://bit.ly/bjzg4t
CNN: "Human rights attorney Mohammed
Mostafaei helped bring the world's attention to his client, Sakineh Mohammedie
Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two who was set to be stoned to death for
allegedly committing adultery in Iran... Now it seems his family may be paying
the price. Bakhtiar and other human rights advocates said Mostafaei went into
hiding on Saturday to avoid arrest." http://bit.ly/8YN4JW
ABC News: "By the time Mohammad Abdollahi figured out he had been living in
the United States illegally for more than a decade, he also knew that his
personal safety would depend on being able to stay in the country he calls home...
Abdollahi is now facing that 'gap' head on, with the looming prospect of
deportation to Iran where homosexuality is a capital crime." http://bit.ly/9j8Exp
Domestic Politics
NYT: "But the furor soon died, underscoring the quandary
faced by former high-ranking reformist politicians, journalists, academics,
student leaders and others who have sought safety abroad since the contested presidential
election in June 2009. The Web keeps them involved with events inside Iran,
easing some of the isolation of life in exile. Still, they can no longer
directly confront the government in the Islamic republic, where widespread
bloody repression has left the opposition Green Movement with an uncertain
future." http://nyti.ms/9evO7W
Radio Farda: "July 27 is the 30th
anniversary of the death of Iran's last imperial ruler, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The
shah left Iran in December 1978 after 37 years in power. After living in
Morocco, the United States, Mexico, and Panama, he went to Egypt where he died
in a Cairo hospital on July 27, 1981. His body was laid to rest in the Al-Refai
Mosque in Cairo.His wife, Farah Pahlavi, spoke to Radio Farda's Jean Khakzad
about the incidents of those times." http://bit.ly/9v1NSD
AP: "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran
inaugurated a new policy on Tuesday to encourage population growth, dismissing
decades of internationally acclaimed family planning in Iran as ungodly and a
Western import. The new government effort will pay families for every new child
and deposit money into the newborns' bank accounts until they reach 18, Mr.
Ahmadinejad said." http://nyti.ms/bL9I91
Foreign Affairs
AFP: "Egypt has denied visas to four Iranian lawmakers who planned to travel
to the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, Iran's Press TV reported on Wednesday. 'The
Egyptian government has stonewalled the visa process... no visa has been issued
for the MPs as of yet,' Mahmoud Ahmadi Bighash, one of the four lawmakers, was
quoted as saying by the English-language television's website." http://yhoo.it/9oIpBd
Opinion
WSJ Editorial Board: "If the European Union's execution is as good as
the rhetoric, then its latest round of economic sanctions will finally put more
than token pressure on Iran over its nuclear-weapons program. Until this week,
the EU has focused on trying to prevent nuclear proliferation by restricting
the export to Iran of nuclear and dual-use technology. But as the EU's
ever-growing list of Iranian front companies and shell corporations attests,
this was always a losing game." http://bit.ly/dfBBaJ
Christian Science Monitor Editorial
Board: "It's important to remember, however, that sanctions against Iran
are not an end in themselves. The whole point is to convince Iran to return to
the nuclear negotiating table, and to produce results. Not more foot-dragging.
Not more deception. But a way for the international community to ensure that
Iran is on a path to the peaceful use of nuclear technology (as it claims) and
not to acquiring nuclear weaponry (as the West claims from intelligence
sources)." http://bit.ly/dc9Nbm
Charlie Gillis and David Armstrong in MacLean's: "As above-board operators
in their own country, Tabari and TSI are emblematic of Iran's system for
acquiring nuclear technology, according to investigators. The program runs much
like government tendering in Western countries-the government offers money to
anyone who can deliver the materials, issuing orders that independent importers
like Tabari try to fill. In time, they become both independent contractors and
middle managers in a high-risk, high-reward business-recruiting agents abroad,
identifying suppliers, dispatching the operatives to buy and ship the needed
goods." http://bit.ly/bxIlhc
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